"He Uses People"

As Board candidate Barnett Sturm suggested in his statement about why he rejected election support from the Frank/Morse slate of candidates in the Board election, Bob Frank uses people in furtherance of his own ends whenever he can.

A perfect example is in Bob Frank's e-mail message, sent high priority this morning and printed verbatim below. Addressees on the e-mail include the entire Board of Directors; the Community Manager; Frank's running mate Ron Morse; one of Frank's campaign advisors, retired Air Force General Dick Browning; and Sandy Howard, chairperson of the Election Committee.

Blogger Ron Johnson misstated, deliberately or otherwise, the scenario for SCA dues increases in the 2001-2002 period. I corrected Mr. Johnson with the facts about the dues and the increases during that period. But referring to this erroneously as "a debate," Mr. Frank, as a campaign ploy on behalf of himself and his shill Mr. Johnson, is now demanding, via the e-mail reprinted below, that the Community Manager drop everything she is doing, presumably legitimate duties in performance of her obligations under the RMI management agreement, to do extensive research for Mr. Frank as part of the election campaign.

And as the e-mail demonstrates, he doesn't want to just know what the annual dues were over the years; he wants the Community Manager to also tell him who the members of every Board and Finance Committee were since SCA's inception; what the "surplus assessments" were, whatever the heck that means; and how these alleged "surplus assessments" affected our dues each year.

Doesn't Mr. Frank realize that there were no "surplus assessments" because, during the early years that the developer was in control of the Association, it subsidized SCA?

It is sad to see Mr. Frank attempting to draw management into a political campaign matter, as including campaign allies in his e-mail clearly shows that it is for him. In addition, if he wants to know the facts, he can easily take a look at, or request a copy of, our annual budget statements and see for himself. That's a lot of material to read, of course, and Bob Frank has never shown a facility for reading and absorbing large volumes of material.

I hope CAM rejects Bob Frank's politically driven request and deposits his message in the circular file where it belongs. That probably won't happen, but this is obviously more political gamesmanship from the most disruptive Board member Sun City Anthem has ever seen.

---------------

Bob Frank's e-mail message:

----- Original Message -----

From: Robert E. Frank

To: Roz Berman; Barry Friedman; Mike Dixon; Bob Frank; Shirley Cheri; Carl Weinstein; Caren Carrero

Cc: Ronald A. Morse; Barnett Sturm; Sandy Howard; Richard Browning 

Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 9:17 AM

Subject: What are the facts on SCA Assessment History?

For Caren and Roz Berman,
See attached document to see that David Berman and Ron Johnson are having a debate on the history of SCA Assessments.  This is certain to boil over into heated campaign discussions in many directions, so I am requesting that the facts be clearly stated by the CAM as derived from our historical records.  It is important that any debates be based on just the facts.
The obvious questions needing to be answered are:

1. What have been the SCA assessments for members and neighborhoods by date and amount?
2. Who served on the boards and finance committees since the founding of SCA CAI?
3. We know that there have been surplus assessments reported in the past 5 years or more.  What was the amount of surplus assessments (by year) since 1998?
4. When they occurred, what happened to the surplus assessments since 1998, and what effect did they have on the annual assessment rates?

Sincerely,
Bob Frank
SCA Director

Comments

[Charles W Davis]

What an irrelevant bunch of information that Bob Frank is requesting. His item #4 would imply that the surplus was transferred away to some money pit. He knows that it was simply carried over each year. He has attended a couple of the Budget meetings. They clearly show the carryover. But maybe he wasn't paying attention. Or, more likely, he pretends not to know to promote his candidacy.

[Jerry Gardberg]

Has anyone read the articles in the Anthem Voice, Special Election Issue that came in the R/J yesterday? With Bob Frank and Ron Morse on the cover it would appear they are the authors. Viewed most favorably the articles are misrepresentations and very negative and perhaps slanderous about our community.
Who needs these guys?

[Ken Hinson]

Yet another "Red Herring". If Mr Frank has any Accounting knowledge he would be able and therefore capable of seeing the information for himself.
As a retired CPA his I am amazed at his lack of understanding the process by which accounts are prepared, known as double entry, which forces one years carryover to be clearly shown and accounted for in the next year and years there after. Otherwise they would not balance.

[carl weinstein]

To all Residents who are incensed at what they read in the Vegas Voice Insert:

I have written an email to the Editor of that worthless sheet telling them that as a resident of SCA I am concerned about this negative incorrect information going out to the public and that I will no longer patronize any of their other advertisers! I suggest that we all send such a message in an "Email to the Editor"

[David Berman]

Carl, I would have to respectfully disagree with you regarding criticism of the publisher for accepting money to publish the Vegas Voice insert. I don't think it's the publisher's job to pass judgment on it, as he has to make a living and is not qualifieid to be a fact-checker.

With that in mind, what do you think of this? When I dropped by the UPS Store the other day to complete arrangements for the Unity flyer that will be received by residents in the next day or so, I was told that someone they believed to be Bob Frank came down to the store to berate the owner because of Bob's belief, apparently, that they had produced the SCARFS flyer.

Interfering with one's business is not a proper thing to do, whether the businessman is the publisher of Vegas Voice or a local businessman who prints a flyer.

[Ronnie]

Hey Dave. I saw a man carrying a FRANK/MORSE sign right outside of Independence Center. Is that legal???

[David Berman]

Ronnie, I'd say that it is "legal," not much different than if someone is wearing a campaign button, placing a sign on their car, etc.

If the sign were not being carried and were placed on the ground or mounted on Association common property, I think that would be a different story.

Although the Unity group has at least 100 signs on private homeowner property so far, I've never been convinced that voters are gullible enough to vote one way or another just because they see a sign. It's more of a "we must show the flag" type of campaign step.

I think it would be nice if folks don't have to make an issue over signs, unless there's a clear violation. Last year such concerns were a distraction that took away from focusing on the real issues affecting the community.

[Marge Mahoney]

I also saw a man carrying one of the Frank/Morse signs. He was standing at the corner of Eastern & Sun City Anthem Drive. He was also wearing one of their "eye catching" but very un-attractive shirts; just like the ones being worn by them on the cover of the insert in Vegas Voice this week.

Prior to all the talk about the insert, I have to admit that the Vegas Voice usually winds up in my recycling bin before it makes it into my house on the way back from the mailbox. This week, I went to the recycling bin and pulled it out and read not only the Frank/Morse insert, but scanned through the rest of the publication too. I don't think the effort to retrieve it fron the recycle bin was worth the effort and the next time it is delivered it will wind up with like the other junk mail. from cover to cover it was pretty much junk including the Frank/Morse insert!

[David Berman]

Marge: I'm told that at least two of the sign-carriers are devoted Bob Frank supporters Norman McCullough and Tim Stebbins. A couple of my correspondents who didn't know their names described the sign-carriers they saw as "elderly," though looking in our own mirrors would probably tell us that it is a rather harsh description, since we are probably ALL elderly in the eyes of the "outside world."

For their sakes, I just hope they remembered the sun screen. It's not good to stand out there for long periods in this climate.

[Marge Mahoney]

No, I really did not know who the sign carrier was, it really did not matter. The only one of the two "Vote Smart" candidates that I recall ever having met in person is Bob Frank and it was certainly not him. Like I said, it does not matter. I just thought it was sort of odd, since a lot of the people who drive near that corner are not residents, and have no vote. Also, like you, I am not sure that a sign here and there will really influence voters that much. At least it is a fairly inexpensive way to campaign and standing on the corner is probably easier for one of us "elderly" (gosh I hate that term) than walking door to door and throughout the various villages, especially the villages like mine that have a lot of steep incline to the streets.